


The Furry and the Beautiful

by JadeHeart



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: Action & Romance, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 01:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16713946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeHeart/pseuds/JadeHeart
Summary: One look at Catra on Scorpia’s arm sent Adora into a frothy sea of emotions. And I wanted to explore that build up. ALL The build up. Inspired by and with references to Waiting for Godot, Bohemian Rhapsody, and a dazzle of glorious imagination. This piece should take place during episode Battle for Bright Moon which is the last episode of Season 1 so spoiler alert.





	The Furry and the Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> One look at Catra on Scorpia’s arm sent Adora into a frothy sea of emotions. And I wanted to explore that build up. ALL The build up.

 "Catra, can we please talk?" Adora begged into the empty field beside the mountainside. Catra was nowhere to be seen. 

 

The wind howled. Explosions from the battle could be heard at a distance.

 

 

Then Catra pounced on Adora. It startled Adora so much so that she fell hard onto the ground. 

 

 

"Is that all that you’ve got? Haven’t your new friends taught you **anything**?" Catra hissed. 

 

Adora reached for a nearby rock to throw at her. 

 

Catra dodged the incoming rock projectile and started to climb up a mountainside. 

 

Lightning clapped behind her. The siege was almost complete. 

 

Adora got up and charged at Catra with her sword. Catra shoved a rock downwards at Adora.

 

The impact tossed Adora backward and she tumbled. The wind had been knocked out of her. She couldn’t really move. She collapsed face first. 

 

"Come  _ **on**_ Adora!" She called out as if she was disappointed in her combat mate. 

 

Adora didn’t move. 

 

Catra hopped towards her. She gave her a rather forceful nudge with her tail. 

 

Adora grunted. 

 

Catra lowered herself and she whispered in Adora’s ear, drawing out each word. "What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? "

 

Adora felt chills. Her hand shot out and yanked Catra by the ear towards the ground. She shrieked.  Catra ate a face full of dirt. 

 

"Stop this Catra." Adora muffled through the dirt, still face down and unmoving, deciding not to fight back.

 

Catra spat out the earth from her mouth and climbed onto Adora’s back. She held Adora in a chokehold and extended her claws. 

 

“I won’t stop until you give yourself up to the Horde do you understand? If you don’t give yourself up you realize that I want you to suffer until you do.”

 

Adora could see the claw details closely. She had sharpened them. She felt Catra's hind claws digging into her back. 

 

"Catra. I told you, the Horde is evil. I can’t go back there and you shouldn’t either!  **You**. **don’t**. **belong**. **there**!" Adora lifted herself off the ground fast enough to throw Catra across the way. She rolled a couple times before catching herself with her elbow. She propped herself up despite the pain. She craned her neck to look at the 8 foot glowing giant before her. 

 

The frustration that Catra felt was palpable. She leapt at Adora and clawed at her face. Adora screamed as her hand reflexively flew to her cheek. Catra tripped Adora with her body and as she was falling, she pinned her down. 

 

They locked eyes. Catra was maniacally fueled by the blood on Adora's face while also feeling like she had gone too far. Then her anger came back like a wave. “When are you going to get into that pretty little dense head of yours that you don’t get to say where I belong?!”

 

Adora glared at Catra. A realization hit her. “Is this really about the Horde then? Or is it about you and me?” 

 

Catra furrowed her brow. She slightly cocked her head. Then tears lined her eyes as she screamed in Adora’s face, “there is NO you and me!” 

 

Suddenly, a streak of lightning zapped the earth next to them. Then a thunderous boom. 

 

Everything went silent. 

 

they both went into a state of disorientation. Everything was hot. Adora tried to feel for and call for her sword amid the spinning of her world. She thought she felt it’s mantle. But it was Catra's hand that she felt. She gave in. 

 

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a blue sky. Transported into another world. She was in an endless field of flowers. It was unrecognizable. Adora wasn’t She Ra. She tried looking for her sword. Nowhere to be found. The gash on her face was gone. 

 

Then she heard a familiar laughter. Happy laughter. She looked behind her. She saw someone who looked like her sitting under a tree with Catra. 

 

She sprinted towards the scene, remembering Catras painful words. She called out Catras name. But they couldn’t hear her. 

 

A voice from the sky said “Do you wish to be in her place?” 

 

“What? Who’s there?” 

 

The voice repeated the question. 

 

“Who’s place? Which her? Like, me - her?”

 

“If you wish to be in her place, just reach out to her.”

 

Adora observed that the faceless doppelgänger sounded like her. But no matter the angle the world would shift so that Adora couldn’t see if it was really herself. Whoever it was she seemed blissfully happy. It made her happy. And calm.

 

Sitting opposite was Catra expertly making a flower crown. Then she placed it on the Adora look alike.

 

“There. You look...beautiful.” Catra said. 

 

Adora laughed. “Okay, but that’s fake. Catra hates flowers. She wouldn’t make me a _flower_ crown.” Although maybe it’d nice if this happened she thought to herself.

 

Then Catra turned her body towards her. Adora gasped. She felt like she’d been exposed. 

 

“You don’t even know me.” Catra seethed. Adora put up her hands up in defense about to say something but suddenly someone was hollering from above. The hollering grew at a crescendo. 

 

Another Catra was falling from the sky. She landed with a thud. 

 

Catra sprang to her feet. She tried to process the new surroundings as she glanced at the tree, the flowers, Adora, Adora doppelgänger, and what seemed like her twin. Then back at the flowers, the trees, the two versions of Adora, and the two versions of herself. “What...is ....going....on....Adora?”

 

“I don’t know!”

 

“Who is that? Is that me? I can’t see her face... Why are you making me a flower crown?”

 

The two doppelgangers continued making flower crowns in silence as if nothing was going on around them. 

 

“I can’t see my—- I mean l, her face either. I don’t know why we’re here.”

 

“Look if this is another one those weird She-Ra Light Hope tricks I’m done. I’m so done. The first time was weird enough. I want out. I want out now. The Battle for Bright Moon is almost over and I’m about to win.” Catra turned around to walk away. 

 

“No, Catra wait!” Adora reached for Catra but the dimensions of their surroundings were stretching. The field was disappearing under their feet. The sky was literally collapsing inward. “Catra please!”

 

Catra stopped as she noticed the darkness enveloping them. She started to lose feeling from her feet to her waist to her neck. “Adora!” She called out in a panic.

 

The voice ahead said again, “If you wish to be her reach out to her. “

 

They both stretched to touch their doppelgängers. 

 

The world spun in dizzying rotations. All light was sucked into a hole.

 

Then they were in the field again. Except they were both wearing flower crowns. Petals gently swayed in the breeze as they cascaded towards the ground.

 

Catra resigned into what was happening as she started to feel like she was in a daze. “Is this the real life. Is this just fantasy.” She picked at her flower crown.

 

Adora looked at the daisies in her hands. Then she remembered what happened before they were tossed into this alternate reality.

 

She started tearing up. 

 

She didn’t know why but she offered Catra the daisy. For what she didn’t know. 

 

Catra blinked in confusion. 

 

“Please take it.”

 

Catra slowly took the daisy into her clawed hands. She stared at it. She felt oddly calm here but it made her more anxious. 

 

Adora couldn’t stop the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. She sniffled.

 

Catra saw the tears on Adoras face. She still didn’t like seeing Adora in pain. Catra hated herself for being so soft. It was less painful for Catra if she was the one inflicting it.  Adora was hurt. But Catra still felt hurt. 

 

So her hands reflexively brandished her claws. Adora braced for impact. But Catra softened. And reached to wipe away Adora’s tears. 

 

Adora found herself responding to her touch. She felt soft. So she reached for Catra's hand. 

 

Catra pulled away and curled up into a ball. 

 

Adora looked at the ground. 

 

Catra fidgeted with the pile of flowers next to her. She started stabbing their stems with her claws. 

 

It was quiet enough for them to hear the claws stabbing into the thick stalks, forcing the flowers to give way.

 

Adora watched thinking, poor flowers. 

 

A sweet spring breezed by. 

 

Catra strung one flower through another in a continuous chain. Adora watched.

 

“Are you making what I think you’re making?”

 

“Here. Have it. I figured if I’m nice to you here we can get out of here sooner.” Catra placed it in Adora's lap.

 

Adora took the flower crown almost in disbelief.  

 

“Is this supposed to be heaven?” Catra asked. 

 

Adora smiled. “It sort of feels like it,” she replied not certain whether Catra was implying that heaven included them being together sitting under a tree making flower crowns in a perfectly beautiful field of flowers. She picked up a flower and started making a flower crown for Catra.

 

“Well it’s kind of...boring.” Catra scanned her surroundings. “Say what’s up this tree?”

 

And in a blink of an eye Catra was already up the tree. 

 

Catra tried to get a view of where they were.

 

Endless. Just endless field and blue sky. 

 

“Do you have any idea where we are Adora?” 

 

“Nope,” Adora said as she finished the crown. “Come and get this Catra.”

 

Catra looked down. 

 

“What? Are you afraid of heights? You said you were never the type of cat to get stuck in a tree.”

 

“No! You can keep the flower crown I don’t want it.”

 

“Then why won’t you come down?”

 

“I’m trying to see where we are!”

  

 

Then the branch under Catra began to buckle. It snapped. Catra grasped onto another branch but that one snapped as well. Adora held out her arms to catch her. 

 

She fell into Adora. Adora collapsed under Catra’s weight. 

 

Squished, Adora muttered “I thought cats were supposed to land on their feet?”

 

Catra sighed. Maybe she wanted to see if Adora could or would catch her. 

 

A beat passed. 

 

Adora daintily placed the flower crown on Catra's head. Catra made a small hiss in response.

 

A while seemed to pass and Adora couldn’t breathe with the way that Catra was strewn across her. “Catra, can you get off?”

 

Catra jumped off and started licking her wounded hand. 

 

“Oh no, let me see.”

 

Catra shook her head. 

 

...

 

The sky began to darken. 

 

“Now what?" Catra complained. 

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Are we just supposed to sit here and wait for something we don’t know what we’re waiting for?”

 

“I said I don’t know okay. Let’s think. Last time this happened we were taken back to our childhood. Then attacked by spiders. Then you made me fall down a deep, dark abyss.”

 

A spirit commanding a chariot horses galloped across the sky and with it, the sky turned into a sea of stars. And rain clouds appeared. The wind started to howl. 

 

“Quick, let’s go to that large boulder that appeared out of nowhere for shelter,” Catra said. 

 

The air was frosty. They were both shivering. 

 

“Hey, remember when the heat went out that one time after that grueling all weather training course? Shadow weaver didn’t even give us extra blankets," Adora said.

 

“Yea she was cruel. It was one of the coldest nights in the city. She probably lied and did it on purpose, trying to teach us training is never over.”

 

“But we sort of...huddled together for warmth...” Adora added. Being a cat, Catra didn’t need much to keep warm. Adora still remembered how frozen stiff her fingers were that night. 

 

“To survive. We did that to survive.” Catra said as if correcting any assumption Adora had... but with a hint of uncertainty in her voice as well.

 

She wasn’t sure if they were going to do that now. 

 

Adora couldn’t tell if Catra was thinking the same thing.

 

 

“I’m going to lay my head down for a bit.” She shivered and curled up into a ball.

 

Catra said nothing.

 

She looked around at the emptiness around them and the menacing clouds.

 

She took a gulp. 

 

Waited a minute. 

 

A particularly chilly breeze blew past them. Catra shivered. 

 

Then she carefully crawled over towards Adora’s feet. She hesitated before curling up next to Adora’s cold body. She could blame animal instinct or whatever. 

 

Adora let her entire self be enveloped in the warmth emanating from Catra. It was a rare occasion. 

 

...

 

Glimmer appeared to Adora in her dream, calling out for her.

 

"Glimmer!" Adora jolted awake. "Glimmer's in trouble! We’ve got to get out of here."

 

Catra stretched. She literally did not care. 

 

Adora paced back and forth. "Why are you not worried? How do you know that your army hasn’t been wiped out?"

 

"...You’re ridiculous."

 

"No, _you’re_ ridiculous! You bring your large battalion into the pristine land of Bright Moon to conquer the land and steal a rune stone that doesn't belong to you---" 

 

Catra tuned her out.

 

Then Catra smiled. She could do this. She could distract her. She was certain the more time She-Ra wasn't in the battlefield at Bright Moon, the more likely the rune stone would be back in the Horde's possession. But also she was really enjoying this and being here. 

 

"Stop smiling at me." Adora crossed her arms.

 

Catra pouted. She shot googley eyes at her. She flashed an angry face. Then a goofy one. 

 

The last one actually amused Adora. 

 

"You poor baby." Catra clicked her tongue noticing that Adora's amusement.

 

Adora resisted the urge to stomp her foot. “I am She-Ra, for the honor of—-

 

Catra interrupted. “And She-ra is she-stuck in an alternate universe that we have no idea how to get out of. She-lost, we're lost.”

 

“For the honor of gray skull!” She called out to the sky hoping something would happen. Nothing. She started to panic. If Glimmer was trying to call out to her, she had to get back into battle or else Bright Moon would be ---

 

"Wha.. what? Catra?" She asked bewildered as she watched Catra purring at her feet. Catra purred on such rare occassions that Adora could count them all with one hand given all the years she's grown up with her. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
